BMW On Demand Offers Flexible Rentals In US

About two years ago, BMW launched the On Demand service in its hometown of Munich, Germany. Designed to give car rental customers more flexibility, the program offers BMW vehicles for hourly rental. So far, the service has been concentrated in Europe, but BMW will bring it to the United States in the coming weeks.

BMW has launched the website bmwondemandusa.com, which isn't fully up and running yet. Auto Blog reports that the first On Demand location will be BMW of Manhattan and will launch with about 100 328i models in stock. The models offered will change over time, and BMW is expected to expand to other major cities like Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami and Washington D.C.

When BMW launched the original Munich pilot program in October 2010, it described it: "Many customers would like to use various models at different times instead of being tied to one vehicle. For example, they'd like a 5 Series BMW Saloon for an important meeting, but would prefer a Z4 for a trip into the countryside at the weekend. With 'BMW on Demand', the BMW Group is therefore launching a project which will allow car drivers to make a fresh decision each time about the BMW they want to drive."

The program can also serve consumers looking for an extended test drive of a given BMW model. Of course, for that to work, it'll need to offer a more diverse selection of models at each major location. Plans are to expand the fleet to include additional vehicles like the 7 Series, X5 and M3.

The program also offers a source of premium rentals above and beyond the average rental car company. Pricing will be announced around the time of next month's launch.